Is it even worth having a healer late game?

[Heijoushin]

Healing spells seem to help a little early to mid-game, but by late game, when all your characters have 300-400 HP, tiny heals of 50 or so are barely a drop in the bucket. It seems like it would be better to scrap the priest late game and just carry around major/miraculous healing positions.

 

So, here are my questions:

1. Do you bother to make a dedicated party healer character?

2. If so, what class?

3. Do they stay worth it late game?

[Boeroer]

1. If I have somebody who can heal, healing is never his/her only purpose. For example I have a SC Animist Druid who specializes on Beast and Plant spells. He can apply very powerful offensive spells (Plague of Insects etc.) as well as strong healing over time (which I cast before anybody gets hurt too much).

 

2. SC or MC Druid/Priest/Paladin/Chanter. In my opinion the best healer in the game is not Priest but Druid - even without being a Lifegiver. Herald is nice as well because of the unlimited passive regeneration. I also like Priests, but their healing spells are more like emergency buttons most of the time so that's not their focus in my parties. THey are there for buffing and removing afflcitions.

 

3. They do. Try Garden of Life or Pollen Patch on a single class Nature Godlike Druid with Spine of Thicket Green. My party can't die then. THe more healing the molre squishy your party members can be (while shifting their focus to offense).

 

Base healing amount scales with Power Level - so it should somewhat keep up with your growing health pool. If you are also mighty and  invest in an ability like Practised Healer and use something like Physiker's Belt, then even better. That's not a must, but those additive bonuses work very well with the raised base healing through PL. You also have more healing spells per encounter compared to the early game. Another thing that stays being great until late game is this special healing spell "Triumph of the Crusaders" (priest). If you have some glass cannons it's one of the best spells to keep them alive (without using Barring Death's Door).

I'm kind of sad that Veteran's Recovery is gone. I understand why, but it used to be my most picked talent in PoE1.

[Silvaren]

Stacking healing effects makes entire party immortal. I miss old health/endurance system.

 

Minor Intercession + Symbol of Eothas it's enough most of the time and if not there are other effects like Moonwell or Moon's Light.

 

Healer can cast one or two spells working over time and focus on dealing damage.

[Elric Galad]

It should be fun to go full Healing and DoT now.

Without health system and with less scary CC effects, it might even be the safest way to play now.

 

I agree that Druid looks like the best healer (and Con buffer... AoE Robust on PL3 is crazy). And there's still people complaining that they aren't as good damage dealers as Wiz.

[Boeroer]

Nature's Balm with its Robust inspiration is relatively short-lived, the AoE is quite small and the spell is centered on the Druid. You can apply it on all party members at the start of the fight if your formation is with the Druid in the center of the group. Later on it's not that useful anymore (except for the Druid himself). So it's not as crazy good as it appears. However, it is nice to cast it right at the start to heal back your pals from getting focus fired - which often happens at the start of an encounter.

 

I agree that Druids should not be able to reach the offensive nuking capabilites of Wizards. Wizards have very few healings (mostly draining stuff and only self-heals). So they have to better at dealing damage. Druids can cause AoE afflictions, give AoE inspirations and heal like crazy while they are good damage dealers. Having a single class Druid in the party is like having a multiclass character (when it comes to versatility) who is able to reach spells and Power Levels of a single class char. Would be unfair to make them as powerful nukers as Wizards.

 

When I look at the former per-rest casters and draw a chart with damage, CC, support(buffing, removing afflcitions) and healing is would look like this:

 

Sort of...

Edited October 7, 2018 by Boeroer

[Verde]

A dedicated healer? No. But one or two companions who can heal? Sure. I am running a multi Xoti and single Tekehu and they keep the party sturdy.

[Lampros]

Healing spells seem to help a little early to mid-game, but by late game, when all your characters have 300-400 HP, tiny heals of 50 or so are barely a drop in the bucket. It seems like it would be better to scrap the priest late game and just carry around major/miraculous healing positions.

 

So, here are my questions:

1. Do you bother to make a dedicated party healer character?

2. If so, what class?

3. Do they stay worth it late game?

 

I find Priests invaluable for Barring Death's Door and, at this early game, Withdraw.

Edited October 7, 2018 by Lampros

[Heijoushin]

Thank you for the advice everyone.

 
I haven't played with Druids much, so I might have missed their healing brilliance.

[Haplok]

 

Healing spells seem to help a little early to mid-game, but by late game, when all your characters have 300-400 HP, tiny heals of 50 or so are barely a drop in the bucket. It seems like it would be better to scrap the priest late game and just carry around major/miraculous healing positions.

 

So, here are my questions:

1. Do you bother to make a dedicated party healer character?

2. If so, what class?

3. Do they stay worth it late game?

 

I find Priests invaluable for Barring Death's Door and, at this early game, Withdraw.

 

 

And Salvation of Time for stuff like Ascension, Blade Turning, Unbending, Merciless Gaze, Thunderous Blows and other mighty short-lived effects.

Edited October 8, 2018 by Haplok

[uuuhhii]

one druid are mostly enough

priest are much more powerful

but not as convenient

[bigbazoopa]

You totally don’t need a priest on a POTD playthrough. IMO they don’t contribute as much as potential prospects. It’s even a struggle to have multi class priests as frontliners because there casting and recovery times are too slow. A paladin with its healing capabilities is more then enough.

 

My personal opinion is that the vast majority of priests spells (especially the first 6 levels) have been to over balanced and nerfed to much. There spells just aren’t really that much more effective then Autoattacking.

 

I have always been hopeful for priests to get a huge buff in patches but they are being neglected

[Flucas]

I just built a paladin/chanter with passive healing, stacked up on +healing done gear. Only using healing chants as well. Now even my squishies are immortal lol.

 

So to answer OP: its optional but very convenient. Either go for lazy passive healing like palachanter or make a multipurpose druid.

 

Priest are overrated :D

Edited October 8, 2018 by Flucas

[bigbazoopa]

very overated

[Haplok]

I disagree. I mean you don't need them for healing, but their buffs are otherwise excellent and act as force multipliers. Even Salvation of Time alone is insane when combo-ed with stuff like Blade Turning or Barring the Death's Door.

Plus at high levels they can pump solid DPS with the rain of Holy Fire and Symbols.

[Boeroer]

Priests are totally fine. As party buffers and removers of afflictions they are unmatched. Devotions + Blessing + Salvation and your party has +15 ACC for the whole fight. I can't see how this is overrated. Makes every fight a lot easier. I have the impression that some players simply don't know how to use priests properly. Using them as primary healers is not the way. 

 

By the way: powerful, long lasting healing over time (HoT) is a lot better than instant healing. With instant healing you have to be on the spot, timing your recovery and the health loss of your buddies. It's nearly impossible to find the right time to cast an instant healing spell in a way that it's most effective (doesn't overheal for example). It requires a ton of micro and is frustrating if your buddy drops a second before you can finish the spell.

 

Just cast a healing over time spell right at the start of battle - or have those passive chats/auras (or both, even better). Then make sure the healing over time never stops. In the meantime you can do other stuff like nuking around or whatnot.

That way you don't have to concentrate on healing. You don't have to watch out for low health party members all the time (because there will be less - or even none) - and if one squishy gets pinned down he/she will lose health less quickly than without HoT. So there's more time to react. If you want to use a lot of instant healing you should use reloading weapons: you can always skip reloading and cast a healing spell right away. You can't do that with recovery weapons.

 

Now, with only health left (and no more endurance/health) just look at healing as if you had a much bigger health pool. And who would turn that down? 

Edited October 9, 2018 by Boeroer